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What are the Downtown Streetscape Guidelines?

A streetscape design process is part of a long-term strategy to revitalize how downtown streets look, function and feel for pedestrians who move through the area.

Why introduce new guidelines?

The City of Burlington's current streetscape guidelines were established more than 30 years ago. To better suit the changing needs and uses of Burlington's downtown streets, the city is undertaking an exciting process to evaluate and update its streetscape design guidelines.

Once finalized, the new downtown streetscape guidelines will provide the foundation for a consistent, unified, cohesive look across the downtown. The guidelines will also ensure an appropriate level of service to maintain the streetscape through the years.

The downtown streetscape guidelines are an important piece of Burlington's committment to design excellence. As the city transitions from a suburban to a more urban community, a focus on urban design will help ensure that buildings, public spaces and streetscapes in the urban areas are functional, attractive, and sustainable.

Project status

What has happened so far?To help develop the new downtown streetscape design guidelines, work has taken place to:

Document a detailed inventory of all existing streetscape elements within the project area

Evaluate the downtown's current guidelines

Collect input from staff, the Burlington Downtown Business Association, other stakeholders and the public.

Public engagementIn 2015 and 2016, public meetings wereheld, along with an online survey to gather resident feedback about the types of improvements they'd like to see in downtown Burlington's streetscape.

What we heardThrough the meetings and online survey, residents told us they would like to see:

wider sidewalks where possible in the downtown

an increase in the number of pedestrian crossings to help feel safe when crossing the street

more garbage, recycling and compost bins

more benches to sit and enjoy the downtown

more greenery and street trees on downtown streets

a greater number of bike lanes and bike racks in convenient locations

a style of furnishings that reinforces the mainstreet character along Brant Street.

What happens next?With the input gathered from the public engagement, the city has developed a first draft of the Downtown Streetscape Guidelines. Please see the button below to review this draft document.

(Please note, the guidelines are a draft document and is subject to costing and approval by Burlington City Council)

Thank you to everyone who attended one of two open house events on May 17, 2018 to share your input on the draft Downtown Streetscape Guidelines.

More feedback welcomeThe city is still gathering feedback from the public about the draft Downtown Streetscape Guidelines. Tell us, did we get it right? Please email your thoughts and ideas to downtownstreetscape@burlington.ca.

Past Public Meetings

Thursday, May 17, 2018

On May 17, the city hosted two open house events to help gather input from the public on the draft Downtown Streetscape Guidelines. Thank you to the more than 30 people who attended the open houses, held at 1 and 6:30 p.m. at the Art Gallery of Burlington to share your feedback.

Saturday, June 25, 2016

The future direction for the street furnishings in the downtown were on display at Civic Square in front of City Hall. This included pavement options and street furnishing samples. Thank you to those who came by to provide their feedback.

Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2015

At this public meeting, participants had the opportunity to work in small groups and discuss potential improvements to downtown streetscape elements such as street lamps, benches, garbage cans, paving materials and sidewalk crossings.

Contacts:

Contact Department

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Links

Get Involved, Burlington

The City of Burlington has a NEW online engagement platform getinvolvedburlington.ca. The new platform has nine tools including surveys, polls, mapping, budget simulator, discussion forums, story telling and more.

Register to join the conversation, share your ideas and insights on city projects and initiatives.